I loved the idea of surprising my two little guys every morning with something sort of Elf-on-the-Shelf-style, but more fun and less naughty. I’d intended to start on December 1st, but that just didn’t happen. Instead, I went with inspiration from the 12 Days of Christmas. Since we’re only through Day 5, though, and I’m totally making this up as I go along, I’ll plan to share the whole 12 days with you next year. In the meantime, here’s a peek at what Jethro’s been doing here at our house.
Jethro was knitted by my 16-year-old knitting daughter, Samantha, using Ala Ela’s Wacek the Gnome pattern with a few modifications. She lengthened the arms and legs and gave Jethro a short-sleeve sweater since, well, we do live in Florida.
Each morning for the last five days, the boys have found Jethro in a different location with a giant gift tag explaining his gift for the day. (I used a free printable from Living Locurto for the tags. I just enlarged the tag on my computer then added the text using a text box in MS Word.)
Some days it’s just been a simple treat, others have included a craft project like these Ninja Turtle ornaments on Day 2 …
… and these bird feeders for Day 5.
On Day 1, they found Jethro in the kitchen. Day 2, he was in the foyer. On Day 3, he knocked on the front door and the boys found him on the front porch.
Day 4, found Jethro perched on one of our bookcases by the back door after having chased away four calling birds.
This morning, this poor little guy had to hide out in the garage because I was late putting his gift together, and I almost got caught!
We’ve had so much fun with Jethro, I might have to make it a tradition to do something different with him each year! I’m as excited to see what the remaining seven days hold as my little ones are! Tomorrow morning, six geese will be leaving eggs and bacon for breakfast, and I’m off now to come up with a cute little rhyme. (If you want to follow along with the remaining days, just follow me on Instagram! I’m sharing each day in Jethro’s 12 Days of Christmas as we go.)
